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The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
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Grass Coming In


 The project that I've been working on during the past few months is finally coming to fruition. I put out the grass seed about 3 weeks ago. It took a full two weeks for grass to appear. I had been hand-watering it but then switched to a sprinkler and I think that made a difference. Of course, if we could get some rain, I'm sure it would go to town. 


The second portion is behind and the seed here was planted later. It has taken about 10 days to appear. At the last minute, I decided to create a step-down since this area was a little lower.


  Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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Comments

  1. Kris PetersonApril 21, 2021 at 12:51 PM

    The small victories are what keep us gardening.

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  2. chavlinessApril 22, 2021 at 8:42 AM

    That first photo gives a different and very beautiful view/perspective of the garden. Before you know it, you'll be able to practice your putting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. julesApril 22, 2021 at 2:01 PM

    Which grass did you use? No- mow or turf?

    ReplyDelete
  4. JulieApril 22, 2021 at 3:08 PM

    Not sure if my earlier post will show up. Just wondering if you used turf or no-mow grass.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lisa at GreenbowApril 22, 2021 at 4:31 PM

    This is coming together with the grass coming in. I like the step down.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AngieApril 23, 2021 at 7:34 AM

    That is going to look so pretty once it fills in. Your garden is looking beautiful already with all the colors.

    ReplyDelete

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